Sunday, February 21, 2016

ON THE WATERFRONT

CLIP DESCRIPTION:Terry (Marlon Brando) speaks with Charley (Rod
Steiger) about his lost days of promise, then Charley hands him a gun
and lets him go.

FILM DESCRIPTION:This classic story of Mob informers was based on a
number of true stories and filmed on location in and around the docks of
New York and New Jersey. Mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee
J. Cobb) rules the waterfront with an iron fist. The police know that
he's been responsible for a number of murders, but witnesses play deaf
and dumb ("plead D & D"). Washed-up boxer Terry Malloy (Marlon
Brando) has had an errand-boy job because of the influence of his
brother Charley, a crooked union lawyer (Rod Steiger). Witnessing one of
Friendly's rub-outs, Terry is willing to keep his mouth shut until he
meets the dead dockworker's sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint). "Waterfront
priest" Father Barry (Karl Malden) tells Terry that Edie's brother was
killed because he was going to testify against boss Friendly before the
crime commission. Because he could have intervened, but didn't, Terry
feels somewhat responsible for the death. When Father Barry receives a
beating from Friendly's goons, Terry is persuaded to cooperate with the
commission. Featuring Brando's famous "I coulda been a contendah"
speech, On the Waterfront has often been seen as an allegory of "naming
names" against suspected Communists during the anti-Communist
investigations of the 1950s. Director Elia Kazan famously informed on
suspected Communists before a government committee -- unlike many of his
colleagues, some of whom went to prison for refusing to "name names"
and many more of whom were blacklisted from working in the film industry
for many years to come -- and Budd Schulberg's screenplay has often
been read as an elaborate defense of the informer's position. On the
Waterfront won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted
Screenplay, Best Actor for Brando, and Best Supporting Actress for
Saint.Why ON THE WATERFRONT is Essential"The finest thing
ever done by an American film actor" was how director Elia Kazan has
characterized the performance of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront
(1954), the classic tale of crime and corruption among unionized dock
workers in New York and New Jersey. Brando plays Terry Malloy, a
washed-up boxer turned longshoreman who witnesses a murder arranged by a
union boss and agrees to testify before the Crime Commission.

Kazan,
in developing the film from Malcolm Johnson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning
articles, originally asked playwright Arthur Miller to write the
screenplay. When Miller refused, reportedly because of Kazan’s testimony
before the House Un-American Activities Committee that had implicated
others as Communist sympathizers, Kazan turned to novelist/screenwriter
Budd Schulberg, who also had "named names" for the Committee. Brando
later wrote in his autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, that On the Waterfront
"was really a metaphorical argument" by Kazan and Schulberg: "They made
the film to justify finking on their friends. Evidently, as Terry
Malloy, I represented the spirit of the brave, courageous man who defied
evil."

Frank Sinatra, who had been Kazan’s original choice to
play Terry, sued producer Sam Spiegel for breach of contract after
Brando was cast instead, and retained bitter feelings for Brando that
surfaced when the two co-starred a year later in Guys and Dolls
(1955) - with Brando once again in a role that Sinatra coveted. Kazan
had considered Grace Kelly and Rosemary Clooney for the role eventually
filled by Saint in her film debut. Rod Steiger, who played Terry’s
weasel-like brother, shares Brando’s famous "I coulda been a contender"
scene in the taxicab. Steiger also felt a certain bitterness toward
Brando because the latter bolted from the set when his portion of that
scene was completed, leaving Steiger to play his close-ups to a
stand-in.

On the Waterfront won eight Oscars - for Best
Picture, Director (Kazan), Actor (Brando), Supporting Actress (Saint),
Screenplay (Schulberg), Black-and-White Cinematography, Art
Direction/Set Decoration and Editing. No less than three of the film’s
supporting actors -Cobb, Steiger and Karl Malden, as a priest - were
nominated, but the Oscar in that category went to Edmond O’Brien for The Barefoot Contessa.
Leonard Bernstein also was nominated for the film’s score, his first.
Kazan’s testimony for the HUAC remained a controversial issue in 1998,
when he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Oscar.

FULL SYNOPSIS

At the request of mob boss Johnny Friendly, longshoreman Terry Malloy, a
former boxer, lures fellow dock worker Joey Doyle to the roof of his
tenement building, purportedly to discuss their shared hobby of pigeon
racing. Believing that Friendly only intends to frighten Joey out of his
threat to speak to the New York State Crime Commission, Terry is
stunned to see Joey topple from the building as he and his brother,
Charley "the Gent," watch from across the street.As neighbors gather
around Joey's body, his distraught sister Edie accuses parish priest
Father Barry of hiding behind the church and not helping the
neighborhood break free from the mob's grip. Listening nearby, Terry is
disturbed by Edie's indictment and later joins Charley, Friendly's
lawyer and accountant, at a meeting with Friendly and his lackeys.
Friendly assures Terry that Joey's death was necessary to preserve his
hold on the harbor, then directs dock manager Big Mac to place Terry in
the top job slot the following day.The next morning, while waiting for
the day's work assignment, the dock workers offer their sympathy to
Joey's father Pop, who gives Joey's jacket to Kayo Dugan. Terry is
approached by Crime Commission representative Eddy Glover, but refuses
to discuss Joey. Edie comes down to the docks to apologize to Father
Barry, but he admits that her accusation has prompted him to become more
involved in the lives of the longshoremen. Father Barry asks some of
the men to meet downstairs in the church, despite being advised that
Friendly does not approve of union meetings.Later, in the warehouse,
Charley asks Terry to sit in on the church meeting. When Terry
hesitates, Charley dismisses his brother's fears of "stooling." Despite
the sparse turnout, Father Barry adamantly declares that mob control of
the docks must end and demands to know about Joey's murder. Several men
bristle in anger upon seeing Terry at the meeting, and Kayo tells Father
Barry that no one will talk out of fear that Friendly will find out.
Father Barry insists the men can fight Friendly and the mob through the
courts, but the men refuse to participate. Friendly's stooges break up
the meeting by hurling stones through the church windows. After Pop and
Kayo are attacked outside, Father Barry presses Kayo to take action and
Kayo agrees. Terry insists on walking Edie home and, on the way, she
hesitatingly tells him abut her convent upbringing and ambition to
teach.At home, Pop scolds Edie for walking with Terry, whom he calls a
bum, and demands that she return to college. Edie responds that she must
stay to find out who killed Joey. Later that day Edie is surprised to
find Terry on the roof with Joey's pigeons. Terry shows her his own
prize bird, then asks her if she would like to have a beer with him. At
the bar, Terry tells Edie that he and Charley were placed in an
orphanage after their father died, but they eventually ran away. He took
up boxing and Friendly bought a percentage of him, but his career
faded.Swept up among wedding party revelers, Edie and Terry dance
together until they are interrupted by Glover, who serves Terry with a
subpoena to the Crime Commission hearings. Edie demands to know if
Friendly arranged Joey's murder, and when Terry cautions her to stop
asking questions, she accuses him of still being owned by the mobster.That evening, Friendly visits Terry, who is evasive about the church
meeting, then surprised when Friendly reveals that Kayo testified before
the commission. Charley criticizes Terry for seeing Edie, and Friendly
orders Terry back to working in the ship hold. The next day in the hold,
Terry attempts to speak with Kayo, but the older man brushes him aside,
calling him one of Friendly's boys. Big Mac and one of his henchmen rig
a crane to slip, and a load of boxes crashes down upon Kayo, killing
him in front of Terry. Outraged, Father Barry gives an impromptu eulogy
for Kayo, asserting that Kayo was killed to prevent him from testifying.After two of Friendly's henchmen begin pelting the priest with fruit
and vegetables, Pop and Edie arrive and watch as Father Barry ignores
the abuse and exhorts the men to believe in themselves and reject mob
control. Terry furiously knocks out one of the henchmen, angering
Friendly and Charley. Later, Father Barry returns Joey's jacket to Pop
and Edie. That night, after Edie gives Joey's jacket to Terry, the
guilt-stricken Terry tries but is unable to tell her about his part in
Joey's murder. The next morning Terry seeks out Father Barry to ask for
guidance as he believes he is falling in love with Edie, but is
conflicted about testifying and about going against Charley. Father
Barry maintains that Terry must follow his conscience and challenges him
to be honest with Edie.When Terry meets Edie on the beach later, he
relates the details of the night of Joey's murder, insisting that he did
not know Joey would be killed, but Edie rushes away in distress. Later
while tending his pigeons on the roof, Terry is visited by Glover and
implies that he might be willing to testify. Their meeting is reported
to Friendly, who orders Charley to straighten Terry out. That night,
Charley takes Terry on a cab drive and chides him for not telling him
about the subpoena. When Terry attempts to explain his confusion,
Charley brusquely threatens him with a gun. Hurt, Terry reproaches his
older brother for not looking after him and allowing him to become a
failure and a bum by involving him with the mob. Charley gives Terry the
gun and says he will stall Friendly. Terry goes to see Edie, and breaks
down her apartment door when she refuses to let him in and demands to
know if she cares for him. Edie tells Terry to listen to his conscience,
which angers him, but the two embrace.When Terry is summoned to the
street, Edie begs him not to go, then follows him. After the couple is
nearly run down by a truck, they find Charley's body hung up on a meat
hook on a nearby fence. Taking down his brother's body, Terry vows
revenge on Friendly, and sends Edie for Father Barry. Armed, Terry hunts
for Friendly at his regular bar, but Father Barry convinces him that
the best way to ruin Friendly is in court and Terry throws away the gun.The next day at the hearings, Terry testifies to Friendly's involvement
in Joey's death, outraging the mobster, who shouts threats at him. Back
at home, Terry is scorned by the neighbors for testifying and discovers
that his pigeons have been killed by a boy he once coached. Edie
attempts to comfort Terry, advising him to leave, but Terry insists that
he has the right to stay in his town. The next day Terry reports to
work as usual, but is ignored by the men and refused work by Big Mac. In
his office at the pier, Friendly, who is about to be indicted, swears
vengeance on Terry.Terry confronts Friendly on the pier, declaring he
is nothing without guns, and the two fall into a brutal fistfight. While
Friendly's men help to thrash Terry, the dockworkers watch impassively
as Edie arrives with Father Barry. Friendly orders the longshoremen to
begin unloading, but the men refuse and demand that Terry be allowed to
work, hoping the shipping owners will witness their refusal to obey
Friendly and realize their intention to restart a clean union. Father
Barry urges on the beaten Terry, who rises and defiantly stumbles down
the pier and into the warehouse.